Tarrytown May Appeal GM Case Dismissal

On Tuesday, Tarrytown officials announced they had filed a notice of appeal to the recent Supreme Court decision to dismiss their lawsuit against Sleepy Hollow over the GM development.

This came with the caveat that they hoped they wouldn't have to follow through on pursuing court action. And this was followed by anger from the neighboring village.

Administrator Mike Blau issued this release:

The Village of Tarrytown has never opposed development of the former General Motors site in the Village of Sleepy Hollow.  An action was filed by the Village of Tarrytown because our reading of the decisions and findings issued by the Sleepy Hollow Board of Trustees led us to believe that, while Sleepy Hollow recognized the development would adversely impact traffic in Tarrytown, there were no appropriate or adequate provisions for addressing those impacts in Tarrytown. The Village therefore commenced a challenge to the Sleepy Hollow approvals in order to protect the citizens and businesses of Tarrytown.

[On Oct. 2] the Village filed a notice of appeal of the decision of the State Supreme Court in order to preserve Tarrytown’s options. The Village does not have to pursue the appeal and it is our hope that it will not be necessary. The findings of the Judge concluded that part of the $11.5 million in funds Sleepy Hollow is requiring from the developer is to be used to mitigate the traffic impacts in Tarrytown. While we did not interpret the Sleepy Hollow decision as making such a provision, simultaneously with the Village’s notice of appeal, we are reaching out to Sleepy Hollow to determine how much of those funds are actually available for traffic mitigation in Tarrytown. The Village is hopeful that the Judge’s reading of the Sleepy Hollow findings was correct and that Sleepy Hollow will commit sufficient funds to address the impacts in Tarrytown of the development project at the General Motors site and that it will not be necessary for Tarrytown to proceed with the appeal.

Sleepy Hollow Mayor Ken Wray responded in turn with this statement: 

The Supreme Court's decision was clear and unambiguous: we won, they lost. After wasting well over $100,000 of taxpayer funds on a frivolous lawsuit, Tarrytown is now indicating that they're willing to waste hundreds of thousands more of taxpayer dollars on what will be a fruitless and costly appeal. Tarrytown refuses to acknowledge that the process was thorough and legal, as now confirmed by two separate Supreme Court decisions that favored Sleepy Hollow.

Follow Patch as this story develops.

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Where do you stand on this divide between Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow over the GM development? Is Tarrytown standing in the way of progress or do they have a legitimate claim over traffic impacts? Weigh in below.